Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, at a preview party for an auction of works by Damien Hirst at Sotheby’s London, September 12, 2008. Behind them is The Dream, a “unicorn” created from a foal preserved in formaldehyde. The two-day sale began on September 15, the day Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the Dow plunged by an historic 504 points. But by the auction’s close, undeterred art buyers had helped Sotheby’s reach record-breaking sales for a single-artist auction, with a total outlay of $200.7 million for 218 Hirsts. The Dream went to a telephone bidder for $4.1 million.